Groundwater and lake evolution in the Badain Jaran Desert ecosystem, Inner Mongolia

Ma, Jinzhu; Edmunds, W.M.

doi:10.1007/s10040-006-0045-0

Cited by 172 publications

(118 citation statements)

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“…Locations and elevations were recorded with a Garmin GPS, as shown in Table 1. Moisture contents were determined gravimetrically after drying overnight at 110 • C. These data have been partly reported in the previous studies [12,13,19,[25][26][27]. …”

Section: Soil Moisture Datamentioning

confidence: 60%

“…The mean annual precipitation measured at the meteorological station nearest to the present study area (Zhongqanzi Station, 20 km southeast of the study area) was 84 mm from 1956 to 1999 and was highly variable (coefficient of variation = 0.39). In contrast, the potential evaporation from surface water is 2600 mm·year −1 [19]. Average precipitation decreases significantly from south to north, declining to about 50 mm·year −1 at Wentugaole, near the border between China and Mongolia [20], due to the progressively declining influence of monsoonal moisture.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 96%

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Entropy Base Estimation of Moisture Content of the Top 10-m Unsaturated Soil for the Badain Jaran Desert in Northwestern China

Zhou

Lei

2016

Entropy

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Estimation of soil moisture distribution in desert regions is challenged by the deep unsaturated zone and the extreme natural environment. In this study, an entropy-based method, consisting of information entropy, principle of maximum entropy (PME), solutions to PME with constraints, and the determination of parameters, is used to estimate the soil moisture distribution in the 10 m deep vadose zone of a desert region. Firstly, the soil moisture distribution is described as a scaled probability density function (PDF), which is solved by PME with the constraints of normalization, known arithmetic mean and geometric mean, and the solution is the general form of gamma distribution. A constant arithmetic mean is determined by considering the stable average recharge rate at thousand year scale, and an approximate constant geometric mean is determined by the low flow rate (about 1 cm a year). Followed, the parameters of the scaled PDF of gamma distribution are determined by local environmental factors like terrain and vegetation: the multivariate linear equations are established to qualify the relationship between the parameters and the environmental factors on the basis of nineteen random soil moisture profiles about depth through the application of fuzzy mathematics. Finally, the accuracy is tested using correlation coefficient (CC) and relative error. This method performs with CC larger than 0.9 in more than a half profiles and most larger than 0.8, the relative errors are less than 30% in most of soil moisture profiles and can be as low as less than 15% when parameters fitted appropriately. Therefore, this study provides an alternative method to estimate soil moisture distribution in top 0-10 m layers of the Badain Jaran Desert based on local terrain and vegetation factors instead of drilling sand samples, this method would be useful in desert regions with extreme natural conditions since these environmental factors can be obtained by remote sensing data. Meanwhile, we should bear in mind that this method is challenged in humid regions since more intensive and frequent precipitation, and more vegetation cover make the system much more complex.

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Section: Soil Moisture Datamentioning

confidence: 60%

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 96%

Entropy Base Estimation of Moisture Content of the Top 10-m Unsaturated Soil for the Badain Jaran Desert in Northwestern China

Zhou

Lei

2016

Entropy

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“…In the situation, the soil particle composition of silty sand and silt play an unimportant role in soil moisture distribution. The soil moisture is more depleted compared with that in the Badain Jaran Desert (1%-3%, [51,52]) and in the Tengger Desert (1%-5%, [41]), where precipitation is about 90 and 150 mm/a, respectively. The average soil moisture content within 1 m is 0.75% for UZ1, similar to ~0.8% in profile around T7.…”

Section: Soil Moisture and Chloridementioning

confidence: 89%

Groundwater circulation relative to water quality and vegetation in an arid transitional zone linking oasis, desert and river

et al. 2013

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In groundwater-dependent ecosystems, groundwater circulation controls the overall water quality and ecosystem dynamics. Groundwater and vegetation across a 30-km groundwater transect linking oasis, desert and river in an extremely arid area were investigated with a series of soil profiles drilled into the unsaturated zone to understand groundwater circulation and its control on groundwater quality and surface vegetation in the extremely arid Lower Tarim River, NW China. Measurements have included water-table depth, water chemistry and water isotopes ( 2 H, 18 O, 3 H) for 15 water samples, soil moisture and chloride content for 11 soil profiles, and vegetation investigation. Results show that the groundwater in desert zone is characterized by slow recharge rate (pre-modern water), great water-table depth (6.17-9.43 m) and high salinity (15.32-26.50 g/L), while that in oasis (uncultivated land) and riparian zone is characterized by relatively fast recharge rate (modern water), small groundwater-table depth (3.56-8.36 m) and low salinity (1.25-1.95 g/L). Stable isotopes show that secondary evaporation takes place during irrigation in oasis. The vegetation characteristics (coverage, richness, evenness and number of plants) are closely related to soil moisture and water-table depth. Groundwater recharge from irrigation in oasis and from river in riparian zone sustains a better ecosystem than that in the desert area, where lateral and vertical groundwater recharge is limited. The more evapotranspirative enrichment may occur in the vegetated and water-rich riparian zone as compared to desert. This study also demonstrates the effectiveness of environmental tracers in studying ecohydrological processes in arid regions.isotope, soil profile, riparian zone, ecosystem, salinity, arid zone hydrology Citation:Huang T M, Pang Z H, Chen Y N, et al. Groundwater circulation relative to water quality and vegetation in an arid transitional zone linking oasis, desert and river.

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“…During the winter months, a well-developed high pressure system, cold and dry continental air masses with temperatures below zero, influences the area, which caused the mean monthly temperature in January become −10 • C. In the summer months, the tropical air masses from the Pacific Ocean hits the Badain Jaran Desert with more than half of the average annual precipitation fell in July. The spatial and temporal distribution of the precipitation in the area is determined by the Asian summer monsoons at the present time, and the mean monthly temperatures in July is 25 • C with a diurnal temperature variation up to more than 45 • C. The mean annual precipitation varies from 84 to 120 mm in the southeast, and from 37 to 40 mm in the northwest, and the potential evaporation is approximately 2600 mm/yr, being the highest in China (Ma et al, 2003;Ma and Edmunds, 2006;Gates et al, 2008a).…”

Section: Study Site Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Diurnal pattern of the drying front in desert and its application for determining the effective infiltration

Zeng

Wan

et al. 2009

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Located in western Inner Mongolia, the Badain Jaran Desert is the second largest desert in China and consists of a regular series of stable megadunes, among which over 70 permanent lakes exist. The unexpected lakes in desert attracted research interests on exploring the hydrological process under this particular landscape; however, a very few literatures exist on the diurnal and spatial variation of the drying front in this area, which is the main issue in the desert hydrological process to characterize the movement of water in soil. In order to understand the drying front in the Badain Jaran Desert, a field campaign was conducted by the observations of soil physical parameters and micrometeorological parameters. With the field data, the performance of a vadose zone soil water balance model, the HYDRUS, was verified and calibrated. Then, the HYDRUS was used to produce the spatial and temporal information of coupled water, water vapour and heat transport in sand to characterize the variation pattern of the drying front before, during and after the rainfall. Finally, the deepest drying front was applied to determine the effective infiltration, which is defined as the amount of soil water captured by the sand beneath the deepest drying front by infiltrating water of an incident rainfall event.

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Groundwater and lake evolution in the Badain Jaran Desert ecosystem, Inner Mongolia

Cited by 172 publications

References 14 publications

Entropy Base Estimation of Moisture Content of the Top 10-m Unsaturated Soil for the Badain Jaran Desert in Northwestern China

Entropy Base Estimation of Moisture Content of the Top 10-m Unsaturated Soil for the Badain Jaran Desert in Northwestern China

Groundwater circulation relative to water quality and vegetation in an arid transitional zone linking oasis, desert and river

Diurnal pattern of the drying front in desert and its application for determining the effective infiltration

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